Meyers: women will be in the NBA; Can it be Griner?

Long before Baylor's Brittney Griner dribbled her first basketball in the nation's conscience – or even born for that matter – there was Anne Meyers.

Three decades before Dallas owner Mark Cuban would even consider giving Griner a chance at playing in the NBA, Meyers took her own shot at history.

Meyers, then the nation' top college player out of UCLA in 1979, had been invited to try out for the NBA Indiana Pacers. She was attempting to be the first woman to compete against men professionally, a monumental step for womankind if she had made the team.

The 5-foot-9 guard, however, never played for the Pacers. Meyers turned down Pacers owner Sam Nassi's contract offer because she wanted to compete in the 1980 Olympic Games. Back then, professional athletes could not compete in the Olympics and Meyers wanted the chance to add gold to her 1976 silver medal.

Meyers' decision might have quieted the naysayers in 1979 who said women couldn't compete with men, but it didn't quell the conversation. More than 30 years later, the talk of a woman playing in the NBA has resurfaced with Dallas owner Mark Cuban's chatter about drafting Griner this summer.

Griner, expected to be the No. 1 pick in Monday's WNBA draft, is not opposed to the idea. She told reporters at this year's women's Final Four that if she got a shot, "why turn down something like that? That's big, even if you don't make it."

While basketball great Nancy Lieberman, who attended two NBA summer leagues in the early 1980s, reportedly said that there is "nothing but unbelievable, historical upside" to Griner's opportunity, Meyers isn't so sure.

Meyers said she is not pro or con about the idea. She calls it a great opportunity, but Griner has to be ready for the criticism and negativity that will follow her into the gym.

"No one can walk in her shoes," Meyers said. "Just because he drafts her, it's still up to her to make it.

"It's not just about playing. If a woman made a team ... it not only will take a talented person, but it will take someone who can emotionally and mentally deal with the adversity outside the court."

Meyers knows about the strain of making history.

Meyers' attempt was seen either as hype, a measure of hope, a hoax or a combination of all three. But she was not deterred; playing against men wasn't anything new.

Growing up in La Habra, she was schooled by her five brothers, and spent one summer playing with the high school boys' team.

Yet it wasn't talent, strength or desire that kept Meyers off an NBA roster. It was the Olympics and the chance to get the newly created Women's Basketball League off the ground. Meyers was the No. 1 draft pick that year in the WBL.

Meyers believes that someday a woman will play in the NBA, most likely a reserve guard who can shoot from outside.

"Who that person is, I have no idea, or when it going to happen. I have no idea if any of the players coming out are looking to do that," she said. "But Mark Cuban opened that door and David Stern (outgoing NBA commissioner) opened the door a couple years ago, so its still a story. But certainly the respect factor for the WNBA is a plus."